Management Turnover as Change Agent

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Morgan's CEO Mack to be Replaced by Gorman in January

Late today it was announced that the often embattled Morgan Stanley MS (NYSE) CEO John Mack would be replaced in January by the firm’s c0-president James Gorman. Often considered Mack’s possible replacement, Gorman will soon be in the captain’s seat. Mack will continue as chairman. According to a Reuters story by Dan Wichins and Christian Plumb,

Morgan Stanley (MS.N) Chief Executive John Mack is stepping down and will be replaced by retail brokerage head James Gorman, signaling the storied bank is embracing stable businesses after losing big on risky ones.

… “Gorman has really earned his stripes,” said Anton Schutz, president of Mendon Capital Advisors in Rochester, New York, which owns Morgan Stanley shares. “He did a great job at Merrill, he’s doing a good job at Morgan Stanley, and the timing for a change seems to be good, because we’ve made it through the worst of the crisis.”

Many of the street’s analysts are convinced the change at Morgan is related to the issues of risk the bank experienced during the financial crisis and the change at the top is intended to ameliorate that risk going forward. It may be far too early to make that kind of the prediction, we will have to wait and see.

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Liberum Research is a research firm focused on C-level and Director management change in public companies. Liberum launched its Management Change Database in January 2005 and provides alerts and feeds to hedge funds and professional service companies. There are typically 2,000 or more changes per month. Liberum is a division of The Wall Street Transcript. Liberum's Website